Adriana Herrera first came up with the idea for EpicHint, a training and staffing service for cannabis dispensaries, while she was surfing off the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Decompressing after the dissolution of her last startup venture — her second attempt at running her own business — Herrera realized quickly that surfing and #vanlife wasn’t her ultimate calling.

The serial entrepreneur had previously founded FashioningChange, a recommendation engine for sustainable shopping, back in 2011. The company was gaining traction and had some initial support, but it ran into the buzzsaw of Amazon’s product development group, which Herrera claims copied their platform to build a competing product.

Undeterred, Herrera took some of the tools that FashioningChange had developed and morphed them into a business focused on online marketing to shoppers at the point of sale — helping sites like Cooking.com pitch products to people based on what their browsing history revealed about their intent.

By 2017, that business had also run into problems, and Herrera had to shut down the company. She sold her stuff and had headed down to Oaxaca, but kept thinking about the emergent cannabis industry that was taking off back in the U.S.

Herrera had a friend who’d been diagnosed with colon cancer and was taking medicinal marijuana to address side effects from the operation that removed his colon.

“When recovering from the removal of his colon, he’d run out of his homegrown medicine and go to dispensaries where he got the worst service,” Herrera wrote in an email. “He would ask for something for pain, nausea and sleep, and was always recommended the most expensive product or a product that was being promoted. He never got what he needed and had to self advocate for the right product while barely being able to stand.”

Herrera buckled down and did research throughout the course of 2018. She hit up pharmacies first as a customer, asking different “budtenders” for information about the product they were selling. Their answers were… underwhelming, according to Herrera. The next step was to talk to dispensary managers and research the weed industry.

By her own calculations, cannabis companies (including dispensaries and growers) will add roughly 300,000 jobs — most of them starting out at near-minimum-wage salaries of $16 per hour. Meanwhile, current training programs cost between $250 and $7,000.

That disconnect led Herrera to hit on her current business model — selling an annual subscription software for brands and dispensaries that would offer a training program for would-be job applicants. The training would give dispensaries a leg up for experienced hires, increasing sales and ideally reducing turnover that costs the industry as much as $438 million.

“The data is showing an average of a 30% turnover rate in 21 months,” says Herrera. “Looking at turnover and a lot of that comes down to bad hiring.”

The company is on its first eight customers, but counts one undisclosed, large, multi-state dispensary along with a few mom and pop shops.

Herrera also says that the service can reduce bias in hiring. Because dispensaries only hire candidates after they’ve completed the program, any unconscious bias won’t creep into the hiring process, she says.

Applicants interested in a dispensary can enroll in the dispensary “university” and once they complete the curriculum go through a standardized form to apply for the job.

“Our recommendation to run and get the best results is to pre-train, pre-screen and have the graduates unlock the ability to apply.”

A newly formed political action committee is pushing to get a recreational weed market bill passed into Vermont law early enough in the upcoming legislative session to allow communities to discuss the legislation at Town Meeting Day in March 2020.
Founded by Geoffrey Pizzutillo and Jennifer Dye, the Vermont Growers Association wants state representatives to work off the framework of S.54, a cannabis regulation bill that passed the Senate last session but never came to a vote in the House. Eli Harrington, a lobbyist and cannabis consultant working with the PAC, thinks the group can convince enough lawmakers — and, they hope, Gov. Phil Scott — to get the measure across the finish line.
Harrington admitted that the organization’s proposed timeline is tight but said Town Meeting Day is an important deadline. The group is currently running a policy survey on its site.
“To make this thing work, it’s got to work for each community,” Harrington said. “We think it’s important for people to start the dialogue of, ‘Are we going to allow retail? If so, where? What kind of zoning is required?’”
Some communities are already passing outright bans. The Clarendon selectboard recently voted to prohibit both recreational and medical marijuana dispensaries from opening in town, following in the footsteps of both Newport and Dover. Meanwhile, Killington is considering a ban on medical marijuana dispensaries.
The first steps for groups like Harrington’s is to get a recreational sales bill passed. He thinks the Vermont Growers Association can offer valuable input. Harrington pointed to the regulations surrounding Vermont’s medical marijuana dispensaries as an example of what not to do. He called the recreational market a chance to “reset.”
The group emphasizes allowing enough growers to participate in the new business sector so there’s sufficient opportunity — and product — to go around.
“It’s an ambitious timeline, but the plant’s been around for 5,000 years, and it’s been effectively regulated and sold in these United States for quite a while,” Harrington said. “We have the information, we have the capacity and I think we have the will. What’s important is that we don’t screw it up.”
Here are some other cannabis stories we’ve been following:

August 28: About 160,000 people with marijuana convictions in New York State will have those offenses wiped from their records under a new law that recently took effect. [Azi Paybarah, New York Times]

September 5: Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have created a weed breathalyzer. But, as other scientists have found, the technology remains far from ready for use by police departments hoping to detect impairment. [Francesca Paris, National Public Radio]

September 5: Amid the outbreak of a lung illness linked to vaping, the New York Times editorial board called for more research on e-cigarettes. [New York Times]

September 7: Fall River, Mass., Mayor Jasiel Correia was arrested and accused of extracting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from companies that applied to open marijuana dispensaries in the city. Correia has denied the charges and refused to resign. In fact, he was one of the top two vote getters in a recent primary and will run for reelection November 5. [WCVB]

September 8: More than $4.3 million worth of weed — about 1,000 pounds — washed up on a California beach north of San Diego. [NBC7]

September 9: A Texas high school student passed out and was taken to the hospital after hitting a vape pen right before choir orientation. [Jessica Willey, KTRK-TV]

September 9: Vermont’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that more than three-quarters of young people don’t think marijuana use is harmful, a statistic that concerns state health officials. [Kiernan Brisson, WCAX-TV]

September 10: A new study has found that legalizing marijuana has not necessarily lead to a spike in youth use of the drug: “It is more difficult for teenagers to obtain marijuana as drug dealers are replaced by licensed dispensaries that require proof of age.” [Elizabeth Murray, Burlington Free Press]

September 10: The Washington, D.C., public school system will allow health professionals to administer medical marijuana and CBD on campus for students who use it. [Mark Segraves and Allison Park, NBC4]

September 11: Those “trees” growing in Charlotte and all over Vermont aren’t trees at all. They’re hemp plants! [Ken Picard, Seven Days]

September 11: Cops chasing a couple of guys spotted smoking weed on a Bronx corner ended up finding a bound and beaten man inside the basement of a bodega. Yes, really. [Ben Feuerherd and Ben Cohn, New York Post]

September 12: The third-largest CBD producer in the country is located in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. After just four growing seasons, Sunsoil has 100,000 plants in the ground at farms in Hardwick and Hyde Park. [Dan D’Ambrosio, Burlington Free Press]

September 16: Vermont-grown cannabis quality-tracking software company Trace recently received a patent for its tech, will have an app in the Apple store soon and is expecting to land its first government contract by the end of the year. [Anne Wallace Allen, VTDigger.org]

September 16: About 10 students at Lake Region Union High School in Barton got high — and some got sick — after eating THC-infused chocolate on campus. [Christina Guessferd, WCAX]

September 17: Even ahead of full legalization in Vermont, the town of Clarendon has passed a ban on weed sales and dispensaries. [Matt Leighton, WPTZ-TV]

September 18: Thieves in California broke into a cannabis dispensary and made off with $69,000 worth of weed and related products. [Hope Miller, KCRA-TV]

September 25: Cops in Minnesota busted a 22-year-old who had 77,000 vape cartridges that were loaded with a combined 185 pounds of THC. [Paul Walsh, the Star Tribune]

October 2: Vermont’s five medical marijuana dispensaries, which are regulated by a division of the state’s Department of Public Safety, can prevent the release to the public of any information about them. [Sasha Goldstein, Seven Days]

October 2: A Kentucky-based hemp company that purchased a Middlebury processing facility in 2018 has pulled out of Vermont. [Sasha Goldstein, Seven Days]

October 3: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there have been more than 1,000 reported cases of a severe lung disease related to vaping. Eighteen people have died in 15 states. As of October 1, officials have reported cases in 48 U.S. states. At least three nonfatal case have been reported in Vermont, though several possible cases are under investigation. [CDC.gov]

October 4: Here’s some satire for you to round out this Cannabis Catch-Up: “Dealer.com Receptionist Tired of Explaining That They Are Not That Kind of Dealer.” [The Winooski]

The Ridin’ High skateboard shop at the corner of Battery and Pearl streets in Burlington seen on Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. (Photo: JOEL BAIRD/FREE PRESS)

Vermont legalized marijuana on July 1, 2018, but the plant continues to cause legal problems for some businesses who test the limits of the law.

There’s no legal market for marijuana, meaning that consumers must grow their own plants or find someone to share a small amount as a gift. Outside of the tightly-regulated medical marijuana system in Vermont, there’s no legal way to buy or sell the drug.

The owners of Ridin’ High Skate shop, the colorful building on the corner of Pearl Street and Battery Street in Burlington, were arrested this week on charges that they grew marijuana at their home in Underhill and sold it at the shop.

John Van Hazinga and Samantha Steady are facing charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and edible products infused with delta-9 THC, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. Van Hazinga and Steady pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Marijuana remains illegal on the federal level, though in Vermont, U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan has focused her office’s resources on heroin and drug trafficking rather than prosecuting marijuana possession.

Nolan said in a statement about the Ridin’ High case that “open and notorious trafficking of marijuana will not be tolerated.”

“Those who deal this drug and have prior criminal records, those who deal it to children or in their presence, those who engage in violence while dealing it, those who deal it for high profit, and those who deal it in areas of high commercial foot-traffic should expect to receive heightened attention from the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Nolan said.

Good Times Gallery

Nolan’s office brought marijuana charges against the owner of a store on Burlington’s busiest shopping street in January 2019.

The federal case alleged that Derek Spilman sold marijuana and edibles out of his store, Good Times Gallery, on Church Street across from City Hall. Spilman pleaded not guilty to the marijuana charges and related firearms charges, and the case is ongoing.

A screen shot of court papers filed with U.S. District Court shows a photo included as an exhibit by the U.S. Attorney’s Office that depicts the distance between Good Times Gallery and Full Tank on Church Street. (Photo: Free Press)

‘Delivery’ businesses

Online advertisements quieted down after Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan announced the businesses were breaking state law.

Pete’s Greens

An organic vegetable farm in Craftsbury discovered earlier this year that at least one of their hundreds of “hemp” plants was actually marijuana, with a high level of THC.

Pete’s Greens received the seedlings from Champlain Valley Dispensary, the state’s largest medical marijuana business. Farmers are allowed to grow hemp after registering with state regulators.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture tested two samples from the farm, including one that tested for high levels of THC. The story was first uncovered by the cannabis advocacy website Heady Vermont.

The Vermont Statehouse

Vermont’s most stately building briefly became the site of a cannabis grow this year.

Capitol police discovered 34 cannabis plants among the flower beds in front of the Statehouse in June. Capitol Police Chief Matthew Romei told the Associated Press that the plants had not been tested for THC content to determine whether they were marijuana or hemp.